Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-02.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 19.8 points higher (25.3 vs 5.5) but costs 13× as much to run the benchmark ($2923 vs $227; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.3 | 5.5 | −78.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 78.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,923.39 | $227.02 | −92.2% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 92.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.16s | 9.04s | −44.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 44.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.70 / $2.10 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Large 4 Preview: 78.3% less intelligence, 92.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Large 4 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.10 for $190.
Mistral Large 4 PreviewNemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4-preview/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4-preview/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill